People with long Covid are turning to opera singing for a surprising reason

Timothée Chalamet might not think much about opera, but those dealing with long Covid sure do.

It's unlikely that if you're suffering with long Covid that you were thinking about taking up opera. However, it's now been proven that taking up the musical art can actually be beneficial for your health.

It's thought that millions of people across the US are experiencing long Covid, nearly three years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the Covid-19 pandemic had ended.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that some general symptoms of long Covid include fatigue that interferes with daily life, symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort, and a fever.

More specific signs of the illness when it comes to respiratory and heart issues include difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, coughing, chest pain, and/or fast breathing — and it's these symptoms specifically that opera can help with.

Millions of Americans are still experiencing the affects of long Covid (Getty Stock)

Dr Harry Brünjes, president of the English National Opera (ENO) who was a doctor before starting the position in 2015, created ENO Breathe that focuses of helping people learn to breathe properly through opera. It's currently available for for patients who have been medically assessed by a participating post-COVID clinic or referral centre in England, completely free of charge.

Brünjes describes ENO Breathe as 'a form of physiotherapy with our core opera singers'.

"We taught people just how to breathe more effectively. By doing that, it actually meant you get your oxygen saturation up," he explained further to The Times.

According to the newspaper, the project has helped more than 5,000 people. Initially it was created to help those with long Covid, but it will soon offered to those with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) too. A pilot study is expected to begin in January.

Opera singers are teaching people breathing techniques (Getty Stock)

One thing patients focus on as part of the program is something known as 'box breathing' that involves inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding again, each for a count of four.

Explaining how such breathing techniques can be helpful for people with long Covid, Beth Warnock, head of department at ENO Engage, said: "The feeling of being breathless makes people breathe very shallow and take quick breaths. A lot of what we’re trying to get them to do is to reset their breathing patterns."

She continued: "We do that by using movement and physicality and also exercises where you’re conjuring imagery [i.e visualising the square] so that you’re not thinking about your breathing, and your breathing changes as a by-product."

Who would have thought?